Looking back.
Item #: SCP-9665
Object Class: Plato
Elevators in the Empire State Building, the location of the first sighting of SCP-9665.
Special Containment Procedures: Department of Publicity personnel are monitoring and analysing security feeds from previously affected buildings for signs of SCP-9665 encounters. Upon confirmation of a sighting, at least two Foundation agents are to be sent to the scene. Specimens of SCP-9665 are to be apprehended by agents posing as security, the entities are then to be interviewed to the best of staff's abilities. Plausible information concerning SCP-9665-A is obtainable only through this process, and at this time remains mostly unconfirmed.
All available surveillance camera footage depicting SCP-9665 should be confiscated and/or supressed. Due to their near-human appearance and non-threatening demeanor, no further concealment of SCP-9665 is deemed neccesary.
Description: SCP-9665 are anomalous humanoid entities manifesting near the skyscrapers of New York City. Although SCP-9665 seems to prefer older structures, it is presumed that the buildings chosen by the specimens are random. Instances of SCP-9665 are similar to middle-aged to elderly humans. No obvious patterns to their appearance have been observed so far, besides all instances encountered wearing a full gray-colored tweed suit. Multiple members of personnel have noted that SCP-9665 do not possess distinctive facial features; despite this, no two identical instances have ever been observed.
First encountered by civilians in the late 1920s, all SCP-9665 so far have followed the exact same behavioral pattern. A specimen will suddenly manifest in a crowd near the front entrance of a selected building. It will then head inside, taking the stairs to a chosen elevator's highest floor. Upon reaching the elevator, SCP-9665 will enter and ride it to the ground floor. Afterwards, it will exit the building, seek to enter a crowd again, and subsequently demanifest.
SCP-9665 specimens can be stopped for a short period of time while trying to exit the building, and will answer some questions regarding the elevator ride, albeit sparingly. SCP-9665 instances are generally mild-mannered and exceptionally polite in their interactions with Foundation staff, although they tend to exhibit a certain degree of confusion when asked about the purpose of their behavior, oftentimes regarding it as not unusual. As a result of either coincidence or conscious action on the part of the instances, apprehended specimens of SCP-9665 ultimately always demanifest.
During their elevator ride all SCP-9665 specimens enter into a space designated SCP-9665-A; according to their testimony, SCP-9665-A is largely identical to the original elevator shaft. However, the elevator doors open at random floors, revealing a small room with dimensions akin to the elevator. The walls, ceiling, and floor are composed of unpainted concrete blocks, and the room is kept illuminated by a single ligthbulb hanging from the ceiling. The three walls of the room are decorated with up to one oil painting each, next to the paintings are small white plaques indicating the title of a given piece. Despite the plaques possessing sufficient empty space, aside from the title the paintings are without description.
SCP-9665 consistently claim to never actually enter any of these rooms, instead opting to quietly observe their contents from the elevator.
Addendum 9665-I: The following section documents some standout rooms of SCP-9665-A. It is worth noting that SCP-9665 specimens frequently tend to contradict each other, especially when discussing what is believed to be the same room. The vast majority of the details included below are to be regarded as somewhat unreliable.
Room 9665/002 — Appears on the first few floors going down. The frequency with which this particular room appears has dropped significantly over the decades SCP-9665 has been in containment, the reason for this is unknown.
Left painting: Depicts a large white ballroom with golden wall decor. Various models of gramophones are scattered across the floor, each placed upside down and propped up with rusted, bent saxophones. The ceiling is made out of dollars banknotes, painted black. Titled: The Greater Days
Right painting: Absent.
Center painting: Depicts a circular room with walls made out of wooden planks covered in mold, fungi, and moss. The floor of the room is covered in a shallow coating of an unknown bromine-like fuming liquid, spilling out of a hole in its center. Wine bottles in various states of disrepair are affixed to the ceiling using fishing lines. Titled: A Youngster's Forbidden Fruit
Room 9665/018 — Appears on the first few floors going down.
Left painting: Depicts a thick forest with a wide range of trees disregarding geographical and botanical sense. The smaller trees seem to be dying, there is no grass. There is a small clearing in the center of the piece, containing a scene depicting two male figures throwing a small rusted cauldron into a much bigger cauldron of similar make. Some of the bigger tress have bundles of axes wrapped around their trunks with rope. Titled: Once Again, Stage 0
Right painting: Depicts a dilapidated concert hall made entirely out of featureless gray brick and stone slabs. The audience seats are covered in barbed wire and bear visible fire marks. There is no ceiling, the sky is dark gray in color, without clouds. On the far side of the stage there is a framed black-and-white depiction of a radio. The only non-gray objects are the tattered red curtains. Titled: Once Again, Stage 1
Center painting: Absent.
Room 9665/073 — Appears near the middle of the elevator ride.
Left painting: Depicts a combined kitchen and dining room of a wooden house. At the center there is a table with five chairs, the chairs are occupied by plush toys depicting a man, a woman, a young boy, a young girl, and a dog. A tablecloth, missing from the table, is nailed to the ceiling using various syringes, knifes, and one belt buckle. Less than one fourth of the tablecloth is visible. Titled: Visions of What We Were Told
Right painting: Absent
Center painting: Depicts a futuristic-looking sports car parked in a lunar-like environment, surrounded on all sides by crude, concrete spikes. A crowd wearing colorful party hats is seen in the background, watching a depiction of the same sports car on a TV. Some of the partygoers are turned away from the screen, and are instead looking up, or appear asleep. Titled: Rapid Progress
Room 9665/141 — Appears near the middle of the elevator ride.
Left painting: Depicts nightclub bathroom, without mirrors or stalls. One of the sinks is replaced with an IBM Personal Computer. Two discoballs are mounted on the ceiling, wrapped up in toilet paper. Random floor tiles have been removed, the resultant holes are surrounded on four sides by diversly colored trainers. The only window in the room is boarded up with a rusted metal sheet. Titled: Recreational
Right painting: Absent
Center painting: Depicts a crack in a wall. Titled: As The Walls Began to Fall
Room 9665/203 — Appears near the ground floor.
Left painting: Absent.
Right painting: Depicts a brightly illuminated hospital-like hallway, with uneven lighting all throughout. Dozens of hospital beds with metallic humanoid statues standing up on top of them line the walls. In place of their heads, the statues possess broken TV screens. One considerably smaller statue visible under one of the beds displays a face-shaped image on its TV, despite it being broken. Titled: Symptoms
Center painting: Depicts a skyscraper standing in a featureless gray void, with empty parking lots located at the base of the building and on its roof. The windows of the structure are almost entirely covered in graffiti-like arrow shapes, pointing downwards. A single indistinct humanoid figure is seen atop the building, it appears to be sprinting either towards or away from the ledge. Titled: Options
Room 9665/313 — Always appears as the last room before reaching the ground floor, regardless of the amount of floors travelled.
Left painting: Absent.
Right painting: Absent.
Center painting: A painting hanged with its backside facing the elevator door. The actual contents are unknown, and it is not framed. On the back, in the bottom left corner, there is a crude coal drawing of a rectangular shape with various lines coming out of it. Each instance of SCP-9665 to date has concluded the drawing to be a different object. The painting has a title, although written in a language and script that are not known to any recorded SCP-9665.
Addendum 9665-II: Human attempts at entering SCP-9665-A invariably prove fruitless, with the following approaches being tested and subsequently confirmed as ineffective by research staff:
- Entering an elevator in place of an SCP-9665 specimen before it enters the building;
- Entering an elevator in place of an SCP-9665 specimen before it starts ascending the staircase;
- Entering an elevator in place of an SCP-9665 specimen before it approaches the elevator door;
- Entering an elevator in place of an SCP-9665 specimen after pushing it away;
- Entering an elevator alongside an SCP-9665 specimen.
Despite contradicting testimony from SCP-9665, individuals engaging in the last behavior consistently report feeling the elevator rise.